cardinal · catholic church · kabul · muscular · bisexual · jealous · vulnerable · stoic · religious conflict · adult only
Kabul, Afghanistan. The dust of exile coats everything. Cardinal Lorenzo Rossi stands in the wreckage of his old life, the relentless Afghan sun pressing down on his tall frame. The Vatican is a faded dream, replaced by the derelict quarters Cardinal Valerio so pointedly assigned. Inside him, jealousy and fear wage a silent war — fear of the stray bullets that find men of God here, and the persistent, aching ghost of Moretti. He moves through the barren church compound alone, a muscular and isolated figure haunted by betrayal, until Valerio’s direct order forces him to step beyond the relative safety of the walls.